biceps with other equipment
25 exercises for biceps you can do with other equipment.
Dumbbells and barbells are only part of the picture. With the right equipment, you can train biceps from angles that free weights never reach—and this page brings together twenty-five such exercises.
The range is wide: weighted chins and Gironda Sternum Chins on one end, atlas stones and sled pulls on the other. What unites them is that they all challenge the biceps in ways that transfer real strength outside the gym.
Pick two to three exercises per session, establish clear progression, and return. That's the formula—everything else is about which angles you want to emphasize.
Bodyweight Classics That Scale
Weighted chins are the starting point for anyone serious about building bicep strength without a barbell. You hang, load a belt, and pull—simple mechanics with unlimited potential. Want to increase difficulty without added weight? Single-arm hanging chins and dead hangs deliver, plus they demand shoulder stability and grip strength at levels most people underestimate.
Gironda Sternum Chins and London Bridges are older variations that change how your torso angles into the bar and put your biceps under load through a longer range of motion. Hanging rows and inverted strap rows give similar pulling patterns but with horizontal force—a solid complement if you want volume without vertical shoulder stress.
Muscle Ups and Kipping Muscle Ups occupy their own category. They're demanding full-body movements where the biceps play a crucial role, but they demand that your foundational strength is already in place.
Functional Strength with Unconventional Implements
Rope climbing is probably the most underrated bicep exercise there is. You work against your own bodyweight with slow, controlled pulling, and your muscles stay under tension the entire way up—no kipping out allowed.
Atlas stones and atlas stone trainers offer a completely different grip width and loading profile. Thin bar lifts and sand bag loads are about lifting and stabilizing awkward weight—exactly what biceps do in the real world. Sled pulls work differently: you drag against resistance with a straight elbow, moving backward, which creates continuous tension through the entire range of motion.
Standing plate pinch and reverse plate collar curls are easier to start with and work well as supplemental exercises when you want to add volume without hammering your joints. Rocky Chins and side-hanging pull-ups are technical variations with narrower applications but ones that really challenge the biceps in the lateral plane.
Mobility and Recovery
Standing bicep stretch and overhead stretch in a chair look simple—because they are. But the biceps easily shorten under heavy training volume, especially when you run lots of pulling work. Shoulder pass-throughs and dead-hang thoracic rotation complement stretching by keeping your shoulder girdle and thoracic spine mobile.
Do one to two minutes of stretching per side after every bicep session. That's enough to maintain mobility without pulling focus from strength work.
How to Choose and Progress
With twenty-five exercises, it's easy to jump around without direction. Avoid that by dividing exercises into three categories: vertical pulls (weighted chins, muscle ups, single-arm variations), horizontal pulls (hanging rows, inverted strap rows), and functional loading (atlas stones, rope climbs, sled pulls).
An effective session contains one exercise from each category, possibly finishing with a stretch. Progress by adding weight, reps, or difficulty—but change only one variable at a time. That gives you clear data on what actually works.
- Beginner: Hanging rows, standing plate pinch, standing bicep stretch
- Intermediate: Weighted chins, rope climbs, Gironda Sternum Chins
- Advanced: Single-arm hanging chins, Muscle Ups, atlas stones